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The weather is getting warmer. Do you know what that means? I’m officially in summer food brainstorming mode. Which means grilling/picnicing/camping-friendly dishes will be infiltrating my menu plan slowly and inconspicuously for the next few weeks, building up to a hostile takeover sometime in the month of May. Get ready because once we move(!!!) and get our grill set up, it’ll be on like Donkey Kong.

What’s on your menu plan this week?Share in the comments section below! If you blog your own menu plan, leave a link so we can check it out. And if you want information on how to plan a weekly menu, click HERE.

I need a new pair of prescription eyeglasses. I have only one pair, and with two rambunctious young kids the reality is it’s only a matter of time before they Hulk-smash that baby into bits and pieces (yes, it’s happened before… twice).

I picked my friends’ brains over Facebook one day for an affordable source of secondary spectacles, and my brother offered up the socially responsible warbyparker.com. He said he’d seen them featured on a news report and learned that for every pair purchased they donated a pair to the less fortunate. I was intrigued by this, and checked them out. Here’s a summary of what they do (from their Facebook page):

Warby Parker sells boutique-quality prescription eyewear for $95 exclusively through our website, www.warbyparker.com, and donates a pair of glasses to someone in need for every pair sold. Polycarbonate prescription lenses with anti-reflective and anti-scratch coatings are included in the price and we offer free shipping, free returns and free home try-ons every day.

We believe that everyone has the right to see. Unfortunately, millions of people around the world today don’t have access to proper vision care. To help address this problem, we partner with renowned non-profits, such as Restoring Vision, to deliver one pair of glasses to someone in need for every pair that we sell. In doing so, we enable you to share the gift of vision with someone who can’t see today and give them the opportunity to read, to work and to live a fuller life.

If you want to check out the whole shebang, you can click HERE and head over to their website for all the deets.

I have a diamond shaped face, which is notoriously difficult to find appropriate frames for. I sort of need to try on frames before I buy them, but I didn’t want to go to a brick and mortar shop and pay up the wazoo for new glasses (since my insurance doesn’t cover another pair for about 15 more months). You might be thinking “Whoa! $95 isn’t exactly cheap when you could get a pair for $10 bucks”… I knew I could get a pair cheaper online, but I didn’t want to gamble my money on glasses that may or may not look good on me. And considering my last pair of glasses was over $200 after insurance, $95 doesn’t seem so bad. AND considering that someone less fortunate is gaining a needed pair of eyeglasses at my minor expense is totally worth the slightly “higher” cost.

One of my favorite things about Warby Parker that sets it apart from other online prescription eyeglass retailers is their Home Try-On program. You can order 5 pairs of frames that you’d like to try on at home (you get five days to decide, with no obligation to buy!) and it includes free shipping both ways. So that’s what I did.

Now I need your help, as I’m redonkulously indecisive about these kinds of things and it’s kind of a big deal for me to pick the right ones since they’ll be on my face every. single. day. Below are the four frames I’m stuck on – one pair was definitely a no-go, so I didn’t bother including it. Check them out, and help me decide which nerd goggles I should order! And before you say anything, I know I look kind of, um, dweeby. I’m no good at taking pictures of myself, especially in poorly lit bathrooms (or anywhere else for that matter). But I can take comfort in knowing that no matter how lame I look at least there’s no duckface action going on in my photos.

Frame #1: "Winston"

Frame #2: "Bensen"

Frame #3: "Sinclair"

Frame #4: "Preston"

Which pair of frames do you think I should choose? Let me know what gets your vote in the comments section below.

When my daughter came to me with a request to create something out of the pile of overripe bananas sitting on our kitchen table, my mouthful of sweet teeth rejoiced. I’ve been MEGACRAVING cake lately and a quick Google search led us to a tasty looking banana cake recipe on Allrecipes.com. Of course we all know that I can’t not tinker with an already perfect recipe, so I tweaked a few things and ended up with my newest obsession: fluffy banana snack cake.

If banana bread and cake got together and had a child, this would be it. It’s light and fluffy and perfectly bananafied. It has the flavor of banana bread without the dense, chewy texture. I ate it sans topping, but I’m sure you could slather on some cream cheese or chocolate frosting and it would make a totally passable dessert cake. I’m already dreaming of sweet little fluffy banana cupcake babies. Oh yum.

What’s your favorite way to use up overripe bananas? Share with us in the comments section below!

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour an 11″x15″ glass baking dish. In a cup mix together milk and vinegar, set aside.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda and salt, and set aside.

3. In a large bowl, cream butter, white sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Mix in the bananas. Add flour mixture alternately in one third increments with the milk mixture into the sugar mixture, combining thoroughly between additions. Pour batter into prepared baking dish.

4. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and place the baking dish on a damp tea towel over a wire cooling rack. Cool at least 15 minutes before removing from the baking dish.

Tips and Tricks:

* If you don’t like whole wheat flour, you can use all AP flour (the original recipe did not call for whole wheat flour). I’m sure you can also use all whole wheat flour, but I can’t promise that the texture will be as light.

* I kind of hate the term “pinch of”. My “pinch” of salt was a two-finger pinch, I’d estimate that it was probably around 1/8 teaspoon if you’re looking for a more accurate measurement.

* I cut the brown sugar down to 1/2 cup from the original recipe’s 2/3 cup and it was still sweet. If your sweet tooth isn’t as demanding as mine, you could probably whittle down the amount of white sugar also. I’d start with 3/4 cup instead of a full 1 cup, and experiment from there.

* I used 1% milk and vinegar in lieu of the original recipe’s buttermilk. You could do buttermilk if you have it, or sour cream, yogurt, or lemon juice (in place of the vinegar) and milk.

* Toss in a handful of chopped walnuts and a dash of cinnamon for a more banana bread-y experience. Or throw some chocolate chips into the mix if you’re feeling crazy (or, you know, if you’re allergic to nuts).

* If you want to frost your cake, try cream cheese, buttercream or chocolate frosting. A sprinkle of crushed nuts on top of the frosting will give it a little bit of that rustic pizzazz.

*If you don’t have an 11″x15″ baking dish, you can use two 8 inch pans (round or square), or a 9″x13″ pan/dish. If you use a 9″x13″, you should cook it a little longer (I’d guestimate 35-40ish minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean).

* Baked cakes generally freeze well. If you freeze it when it’s still warm, it should retain moisture better and you won’t end up with a dry cake upon defrosting.

Last week my biggest exercising fear came true: I hurt myself. I’m not sure what happened exactly, but my husband says I probably pinched a nerve or strained a muscle while exercising. There is a dull achy pain in the middle of my back that I can ignore for the most part with the help of Motrin (or, you know, wine) but I definitely notice it when I start to slouch or turn my upper body. I’ve contemplated going to the doctor, but the frequency and intensity of the pain is starting to lessen dramatically so I think I’ll stick it out a few more days. As I write this I’m going on day 8 of no exercise, but since I have no intentions of quitting the 30 Day Shred I’m going to start easing back into it. Maybe I’ll do Level 1 for a day or two to ease into things and then pick up where I left off. I have to laugh, because a month ago I wouldn’t have considered Level 1 to be any sort of mechanism for “easing into” anything, but now that I’ve seen the darker side of the workout, I’d gladly welcome Level 1 back into my life with open arms.

How do you handle exercise-related injuries? What influences your decision to stop and rest or just keep going?Share with us in the comments section below!

Day 24: Moving on to the next level of the 30 Day Shred is always welcome after 10 days of monotony. I was all excited for change, and glad to leave those pesky plank twists and pendulum lunges behind me. After making my way through the new-to-me 25 minute session, here’s what I’ve taken away from my first day of Level 3 of the 30 Day Shred:
-Sumo/plie hops make me fear that my uterus might fall out of my body, or that I might pee myself, or all of the above. And holy wow, they make for some serious thigh burn.
-Jump squats and rockstar jumps have highlighted the fact that I have zero coordination. Also, I never knew you needed coordination just to jump in the air. Also, ouch.
Honestly, everything else was okay. I had to do the easier, modified versions of some of the moves, but overall it wasn’t horrible. I wish there were modified versions of the jumping moves, because I have serious doubts that I can tackle them for 9 more days.

Day 25: I really don’t like the jumping exercises. They’re starting to hurt my knees and today I had to stop halfway through each set of moves from the pain. I can do every other move without stopping, but damn those jumps.

Day 26: I decided to not do the jump squats and rockstar jumps anymore, instead replacing them with jumping jacks, jump ropes, high knees and/or butt kicks. I know I’m supposed to push myself past my comfort zone to see results, but the idea of potential injuries just isn’t worth it. We’ll see how it goes with my substitutions. I refuse to give up! As for the sumo/plie squats, they’re an insanely easy (albeit uncomfortable) move and the more I do them the more tolerable they become. I’m not subbing those out for anything, just crossing my fingers that they don’t destroy me. I’m still doing well with all the other moves. Some are really easy for me and some are a little challenging, but I don’t feel like I’m killing myself like with Level 2.

Day 27: It was a good day for exercise today. I mentioned in my last Shred update post that I was going to work out earlier in the day, but the 7am wake-up time took a few days of getting used to (aka I slept in a lot, oops). I managed to be up bright and early today and tackled my workout before 9, and the payoff was worth it. I didn’t drag at all throughout the workout and I had a huge excess of energy for the rest of the day. It was like I drank 10 cups of coffee, minus all the caffeine or midday crash. I’m starting to appreciate why people wake up redonkulously early to fit in a morning workout.

Day 28: Everything was going fine today, I managed to make it all the way through to the middle of circuit 3 without even pausing to catch my breath. The cardio portion of circuit 3 started and I was doing my jump ropes (in place of the rockstar jumps) when all of a sudden… OUCH. I landed from a jump and a serious pain shot right through the middle of my back. I thought maybe I landed funny so I tried to start again, but nope. It definitely was not a one time thing. I stopped right there and skipped the end of the level.

*Day 28 was on February 16. As of today’s post, I haven’t worked out since 😦

If you missed the previous updates you can click on the links below to check them out:

I’m just about the lamest 30 year old ever, and I warned my husband that if I got any kind of party action he’d likely get punched in the stomach. I took comfort in knowing it would be a relaxing, comfortable day. We spent the day running errands with the kids and hitting up the library. There’s nothing like treating myself to a few good borrowed books on my big day.

Embracing my inner nerd with a few good X-Men comics.

Then I hunkered down cozily on the trusty papasan and finally finished my current book.

OMG. Total book crush.

My wonderful husband made an early dinner for the kids, engaged in birthday song shenanigans and made me a lovely salmon and asparagus dinner. To truly appreciate the dinner, you need to be filled in on a little secret. My husband totally, completely, 110% abhors fish and on a normal day will not touch it with a ten foot pole. But by golly, he cooks up the most delicious salmon I’ve ever eaten. Since it’s quite the rare beast around these parts, I take it whenever I can get it.

Allowing my children liberal access to the fridge = Fail (you’d think this would work, but they just whined that they couldn’t find anything to eat and hounded me to find them a snack)

I was ready to throw in the towel and set up a permanent residence in my kitchen, since it was becoming apparent that I wasn’t allowed to leave it lest my kids become hungry and need another snack. But in a wonderful twist of fate, I came across a photo that someone posted on Facebook of a Tupperware full of snacks. The caption indicated that they fill the Tupperware each day with a variety of healthy snacks and leave it in an accessible place in the fridge for their child to graze on throughout the day. THIS! This was the answer to my conundrum. I wish I could find the original source and give credit where credit is due, but I can’t seem to hunt it down. So to the genius who passed along this life saving idea: Thank you, you are golden.

So how do you set up a snack box for your children? First, find a non-breakable container that will hold a few assorted snacks. I used plastic food storage containers from Ikea, but you could use Tupperware, a small shoe box, brown paper bags, lunch boxes or sacks, or even those plastic takeout containers.

Next, pick snacks. I take advantage of my children’s grazing habits to fulfill the fruit and vegetable guidelines, knowing that they’re more likely to nibble on a veggie if it’s at their leisure rather than when it’s a requirement on their dinner plate. I use a “1 fruit/2 veggies/1 other” formula to decide what goes into our snack boxes. Here’s a list of possible options for creating your own snack box:

The containers in the photo above are silicone baking cups that I picked up at Bed Bath and Beyond. They’re the perfect size for holding little people portions of food. No worries if you don’t have those, you can use little sandwich baggies or any other small food container you might have. I’ve also recently stumbled upon bento lunch boxes that would be perfect for snack boxes and eliminate the need for using individual snack containers.

You’ll want to find a spot in the fridge that is easily accessible for the kids so they can grab and go without hounding you as you’re honing your inner Grammy Award winning superstar shaving your legs in the shower. Or, you know, pooping.

Lastly, sit down with your children and tell them that if they’re hungry in between “designated feeding times” (yes I run my home like a zoo, mwuahahaha) they can help themselves to whatever is in their snack box without having to ask. Explain that they can eat that food whenever they want, but when it’s gone it’s gone. So if they eat it all by 10 in the morning they’re going to have to starve in silence until lunch, regularly scheduled snacktime and/or dinner, because they’ve been pre-warned of the consequences of overindulging. I guarantee you the first couple of times they might excitedly gobble up all those snacks faster than you can blink, and then come to you 5 minutes later with tears of hunger streaming down their cheeks, begging for more food. Don’t cave in to their wily demands. Slowly but surely they’ll learn the concept of self-regulating and only eating as much as they need to at a given moment.

Try incorporating healthy snack boxes into your daily routine if your little ones are perpetually hungry food hounds like mine. I promise you’ll start hearing less of the “H” word in no time.

On a side note, this whole snack box idea has gone over so well with the kids that I might start making one for myself. As a stay at home mom the fridge has become a regular haunt, as well as my own best friend/worst enemy. Having pre-portioned healthy snacks at my fingertips might just help keep my boredom/mindless snacking habits in check.

What healthy snacks would you fill your snack box with? Share with us in the comments section below!

Haven’t heard from me regarding exercise in awhile, huh. Were you beginning to think I’d quit shredding? If you were, think again.

It’s been a crazy week at our house. Emma, my almost-4 year old came down with croup on Wednesday and has been in a constant state of crazy for the past few days. Chris has had an on-the-fly case of the sniffles, and since maladies work on the rule of 3 in our home it was only a matter of time before I caught something (not the croup, but equally unpleasant and undoubtedly spurred on by (men divert your eyes for a moment) just having started my period. Gah).

By Saturday morning I had the inevitable “hit by a truck” feeling that no amount of hand sanitizer and luck could have prevented. I tried to power my way through a workout in the morning but I caved in the middle of warm up jumping jacks. I was too achy to go on so I hit stop on the DVD player and called it a day. I was up and running again on Sunday, but then on Monday I felt like someone hit me in the face with a brick and took another day to rest up.

I was curious about what the verdict is on exercising while sick, and found a key piece of knowledge while garnering advice from good ol’ Dr. Google. Have you ever heard of the “neck rule”? Here’s a snippet from an article on CNN.com, but I saw it mentioned in multiple other articles as well:

“Experts like to cite a rule of thumb known as the “neck rule.” If your symptoms are all located above your neck (stuffy nose, scratchy throat, headache), you almost certainly have a head cold and can hit the road or treadmill safely. If, on the other hand, you have a fever, congestion in your chest and lungs, or feel achy, it is probably a sign of flu, bronchitis, or another more serious ailment, and you should rest up. (Exercising with a fever will make you more vulnerable to dehydration, among other ill effects.)”

What’s your take on exercising while sick? Do you take a day to rest up and get well, or do you power through and stick to your routine? Let us know in the comments section below!

Day 15: The second day of the Level 2 workout was just as hard. I previously considered going back to Level 1 but decided against it at the last minute, realizing that I couldn’t avoid it forever if I wanted to progress in the program. So I sucked it up and succumbed to another day of torture. I won’t lie, it was equally as awful as the day before, but I had a serious sense of accomplishment for sticking with it and not giving up. And some quick napkin math gave me another sense of accomplishment as I’ve now made it halfway through the 30 Day Shred. Woot!

Day 16: This is day 3 of Level 2. I usually work out in leggings, but they were all dirty so I threw on a pair of running shorts. In the middle of plank jacks, I heard clapping. Was that Emma cheering me on to the finish line? No. It was my inner thighs slapping together each time I brought in the plank jack. Even in the solitude of my living room with nobody around to witness, I was embarrassed (although apparently not embarrassed enough to talk about it to millions of strangers via the interwebs) and contemplated stopping. But then something happened. See, I have this weird quirk that causes my inner monologue to relate even the most mundane of life events to movie scenes. And as my inner thighs were noising away, all I could think of was this:
and all of a sudden I was much less mortified and much more motivated. If my inner thighs want to cheer me on all the way to the finish line, then that’s AWESOME.By the way, I haven’t worked out in my running shorts since then.

Day 17: Things are beginning to look up for me. Level 2 of the 30 Day Shred no longer makes me dread getting out of bed in the morning. There are a few things I’d like to point out, especially to those of you who are (or will be) facing this workout with trepidation.
First of all, Level 2 is very hard. You’ll be panting more, sweating more and wanting to die more. There is a lot more pressure on the joints, and my knees became constantly sore after the first day of Level 2. Even after triple checking my form against the girls on the TV screen, I’m convinced that I was doing something wrong. This brings me to my second point.
After the constant discomfort of trying to follow Jillian and Natalie, I caved and started following Anita (for those of you who aren’t familiar with the 30 Day Shred, Anita does “easier” modified versions of the moves). At first I was saving Anita’s moves for the moments when I actually thought I was going to collapse, and lovingly referred to her as “Anita Break” (get it? I need a break! Ha! Okay, maybe it wasn’t that funny. Whatever. Moving on). But with all the aches and pains, I realized that she’s not there for the lazies and incompetents (an ignorant misconception that I inherited through my pride). She’s there because not everybody can start with a bang, and the smart thing to do is know your limits and ease yourself into things so that you don’t injure yourself. Pushing my pride aside, I’ve started following Anita for a majority of the moves and have found them to still be challenging, but minus the knee pains. Moral of the blabbery? If you’re in actual pain, not just whiny I-hate-exercising pain, you’re either doing it wrong or your body is trying to tell you to chill the frak out (Battlestar Gallactica reference. 10 nerd points if you caught that).
In short, do what you can and if you have to, personalize your workout to cater to your abilities. If you’re not a great swimmer and you jump in on the deep end, you might just drown. Start at the shallow end and practice, and soon enough you’ll be doing laps like a champ.

Day 18: Saturday had us all down in the dumps, so I had to lay low for a day. As I explained to my dad, when I’m sick enough that the act of putting on my sports bra is an exercise in itself, it’s probably a good idea to not work out that day. Super Bowl Sunday arrived with the anticipation of excessive food consumption and I promised myself that I wouldn’t skip the pre-game workout for anything. Despite feeling awful the day before, I worked out like a rock star and felt great for the rest of the day. I skipped the plank jacks and replaced them with regular jumping jacks for the sake of my knees, but I otherwise killed it.

Day 19: Unfortunately, what I thought was an upswing of my health was just a lull and Monday arrived with a sickly vengance. I felt like crud and took another day to rest. I started to beat myself up over taking multiple break days again, but then realized that if I didn’t allow my body to recuperate I’d be missing much more than a day here and there. This morning I jumped out of bed with determination and didn’t let a measly case of possible laryngitis get in my way. It was hard to breathe toward the end with my sore throat but I made it through. I’m still sick but I feel great – does that make sense?

Tomorrow is my 20th workout day and should technically be my last day of Level 2. But since I didn’t start Level 2 until day 14, I’m going to work at it a few more times. Maybe I should be calling this the 39 Day Shred?

If you missed the previous updates you can click on the links below to check them out: